1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an ink tank.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in response to demands for an ink jet recording apparatus having high image quality of a recording image, low-density ink such as light magenta and light cyan has been widely used in addition to conventional four colors (black, yellow, magenta, and cyan) ink. Further, using special ink such as red and blue ink has been also proposed.
In such a case, seven to eight ink tanks are individually mounted in the ink jet recording apparatus, and thus the ink tanks may be mounted in erroneous mounting positions. To prevent the ink tank from being mounted in the erroneous mounting positions as described above, for example, a method is known in which a main body side of a recording apparatus performs position authentication on each ink tank to notify a user of the erroneous mounting as described below.
Based on a signal input via a connection point (a pad) of the ink tank connected to an electrical connection point (a connector) at the main body side of the recording apparatus and individual information retained by the ink tank itself, light is emitted only at the ink tank that includes the individual information corresponding to the output signal. In the recording apparatus capable of performing such emission control for specifying the ink tank, the light is sequentially emitted at a plurality of ink tanks mounted on a carriage at a predetermined position along with a movement of the carriage.
The light emitted at predetermined timing at the predetermined position is detected to perform the position authentication. When the light emission is not detected, it is recognized that the ink tank whose light emission has not been detected is mounted at the erroneous position, which is notified the user of. Further, in addition to the information about the mounting position of the ink tank, it is desirable that information about a remaining amount of the ink in the ink tank be recognized by the user.
Conventionally, the information about the status of the ink tank as described above is transferred to a personal computer (PC) connected to the inkjet recording apparatus, and then the information is displayed on a monitor of the PC to notify the user. However, in recent years, along with the spread of digital cameras, a usage has been increasing in which a digital camera and the ink jet recording apparatus as the recording apparatus are directly connected to each other without via the PC to perform printing (non PC recording).
When the non PC recording is performed, a display may be provided on a main body of the ink jet recording apparatus to display the information. However, providing the display may increase the inkjet recording apparatus in cost and size, and further may impact design of the ink jet recording apparatus. Thus, it is not always desirable to provide the display.
A method is known in which the light is emitted at the ink tank itself to notify the user, as light information, of the information about the ink tank. That is, the method is to guide the light, on which the emission control is performed, to a position where the user can visually recognize the light with ease via a light-guiding member mounted on the ink tank, and then to display the light as the light information.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-142796 discusses the ink tank that has a function of preventing erroneous mounting by performing the position authentication on the ink tank as described above, and that notifies the user, as the light information, of information about the ink tank such as the mounting position and the amount of the remaining ink via the light-guiding member.
Processing for diffusing the light is performed on the display portion formed of a part of the light-guiding member and emitting the light information for notifying the user such that the user can visually recognize the light by viewing it at any angle. For this purpose, it is desirable that the light output from the display portion spreads with low directional characteristics.
On the other hand, as described above, the light-emitting portion of each of the plurality of ink tanks mounted on the carriage sequentially emits the light, and the light having the individual information about the ink tank and emitted from the predetermined position is detected to perform the position authentication of each ink tank. Thus, it is desirable that, when the ink tank is mounted at the erroneous position, the light including the individual information of the ink tank and used for the position authentication desirably has high directional characteristics so that the light emitted at the position is not detected by a light-receiving portion.
If the light has low directional characteristics and is diffused, when the light emitted from the ink tank, which is mounted at the erroneous position is received by the light-receiving portion, erroneous mounting may not be detected. As described above, the light output from the display portion for notifying the user of the information and the light output to perform the position authentication contradict each other in a more desirable output form.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-142796 discusses the technique in which the recording apparatus performs the position authentication by receiving the diffused light output from the display portion of the ink tank for notifying the user of the information about the status of the ink tank as the light including the individual information about the ink tank at the light-receiving portion of the main body side. Therefore, there arises an issue in which the light-receiving portion also receives the light of the ink tank mounted at the erroneous position, and the error cannot be recognized.
As described above, the ink tank having both forms as the display portion for notifying the user and an output portion for outputting the light used for the position authentication needs to select either one of the forms desirable as the output form. Simultaneously satisfying both demands contradicting each other is difficult.